Generally speaking, money transfers are real-time transactions in that a transaction begins when a sender initiates the transaction at the time the money is to be sent to a receiving party. For example, a money transfer may be utilized in an emergency setting such as when a receiving party has an immediate need for funds. In such a transaction, a sender initiates a money transfer transaction with a money transfer service, such as with a local agent located within a MoneyGram® location. When the transaction information is gathered and the structure of the transaction is finalized, the sender provides the funds to a money transfer agent at or before the time that the funds of the transaction are actually transferred.
Once the funds are received at the time of the transaction, the agent may then provide a transaction code or some other form of transaction identifier to the sender. The sender will then provide the transaction code or identifier to the receiver. With this code the receiver may enter an agent location and complete the transaction and receive the transferred funds.
When dealing with money transfer transactions, many customers are among a category of people which can be considered “under banked.” For example, many customers solely use cash for purchases, are unable to obtain credit, have poor credit ratings, etc. Because of this, a full range of payment options are typically not available to fund a money transfer request for many customers. As a result, in an emergency situation where such a customer needs to quickly send money to a recipient, the customer may not have the ability to fund the transaction at the point of the transaction origination, and therefore may be unable to provide the emergency funds. In such situations, the customer may be left with the only option of taking on additional transactions/obligations such as taking out a high interest payday loan.